‘Corpse Flower’ poised to stink things up at The Huntington in San Marino

SAN MARINO >> The stench of the giant “Corpse Flower” may have caused Homer Simpson and all of fictional Springfield to flee for their lives, but it is expected to lure loads of people to The Huntington as the stinky inflorescence is expected to bloom by the end of next week.

The Huntington attracted international attention in 1999 when about 76,000 visitors came to see the first-ever Titan Arum bloom in California. It was the 11th one recorded in U.S. history. The upcoming week will ring in The Huntington’s fifth massive stinker.

“If I were to tell you how would you like to go down to the dump and smell a fresh load of garbage, you’d say you’re nuts,” Docent Bob Maronde said. “However, if you say there’s a plant that smells like a fresh dump of garbage, people will come by the hundreds to see it.”

Curator Dylan Hannon said if he were a betting man, he would place his wager on a Tuesday or Wednesday flowering inside the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Sciences at 1151 Oxford Road. But one can’t control nature, he said.

About 20 Corpse Flower blooms have been recorded in American history, according to The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The putrid plant holds the record for the largest unbranched inflorescence and, according to Guinness World Records, it is the world’s smelliest plant.

“It smells like a dead animal,” Hannon said. “It peaks at night. When it smells its strongest is at night when it’s in its female stage for basically one or two nights (after it flowers).”

Although the odor diminishes significantly when the plant’s male reproductive system comes into play, Hannon said the stinky flower’s beauty could regale audiences for up to four days after it begins blooming.

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The reason the Titan Arum, a rare, tropical plant native to Sumatra in Indonesia, smells like rotting flesh is because it is literally in heat. The Titan Arum warms up when it blooms to spread its heady scent further and attract carrion beetles, sweat bees and flesh flies who will help in the pollination process.

The soon-to-bloom Corpse Flower at The Huntington was about 3 feet 4 inches Thursday afternoon, but it is expected to grow about half an inch a day. It should grow to be about 5 feet, Hannon said. The largest recorded Titan Arum was almost 11 feet, he said.

The stinky flower, more properly Amorphophallus titanum, draws in huge crowds, yet The Huntington’s Conservatory also houses about 200 other similar species whose flowers smell like dead animals, rotten fish, rotten fruit or a natural gas leak.

“I can show you a plant that is this big,” Hannon said indicating about four inches, “And equally smelly, and nobody will come.”

Maronde said he witnessed moving lines of about 300 people enter the Conservatory in June 2010 when The Huntington witnessed its fourth Titan Arum bloom. Some people wore surgical face masks and, in 2009, a 10-year-old wore a gas mask. But Hannon said the smell isn’t expected to drift too far even in the enclosed, humid space.

Maddie Webster, a 10-year-old from Chicago, said she was disappointed her nose wasn’t accosted Thursday. She was looking forward to inhaling the worst smell in her life: rotten eggs or skunk spray.

The Corpse Flower is still a spadix, an upright column. The putrid flowers are hidden at the base of the plant and is enclosed in a spathe or petal-like outer covering. Soon, though, people will be able to behold a velvety maroon interior.